


Some Assembly Required

by orphan_account



Category: EXO (Band), K-pop
Genre: M/M, but cute, kinda gory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-03
Updated: 2014-05-03
Packaged: 2018-01-21 18:22:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 20,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1559717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sehun doesn't get to partake in eternal rest however he does get to partake in a pretty doll named Lu Han. Life works in strange ways, ways that are possibly even stranger after death.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Some Assembly Required

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Selubration 2014

Pitch dark. 

Sehun wiggled his fingers. That was all he seemed to remember, _Sehun_. Well... And the important stuff too.

Pitch dark and cramped. Sehun found himself calm, he was pretty sure he wasn't supposed to be calm.

A knock sounded right ahead, Sehun swore he could feel the sound on the tip of his nose.

“Oh Sehun?”

“Uuuuuugh?” Sehun internally cringed. How long had he been napping for? It appeared that his mind and body weren’t quite synced up.

“Oh goody he’s awake! Boys if you would!”

Some scrabbling. Sehun heard splintering, then light flooded his vision.

“Ah good morning sunshine! For a while we weren't sure about you, after all we've never had a _zombie_ before. For a while we thought the council made a mistake and you were just a regular corpse!”

Sehun blinked a few times, trying to adjust to the light.

“Right you take your time there. Woke up on one of our rare sunny days m’fraid. You do know your name’s Sehun right?”

His throat still felt all knotted up so he nodded instead.

“Well that’s already better than some. The ghosts are the worst. All they do is wail for the first few days.”

Sehun blearily made out the figure clutching his head as he went on, “Such loudness! And it never ends! You can’t hide from them they pass through everything!!!”

By now Sehun’s vision had cleared, the man who was talking to him had brown pointy fluffy ears and a long bushy tail. A genial demeanour, bright smile, and short. He seemed trustworthy enough. Sehun wasn’t fussed.

Flanking him were two men, one short with heavy spectacles and a white lab-coat, then a giant who towered over the other two. Sehun’s eyes were drawn to the heavy bolts on the giant’s neck.

“My name’s Baekhyun and I should be able to answer any question you have.” Wolf man sighed, “Our dear mayor is the one that should be here greeting you, but he’s always on about how he’s absolutely swamped in paperwork. I don’t get his deal, it’s not often we get a newcomer.”

Sehun swallowed, throat feeling much clearer he attempted to speak again. “I'm a zombie?” He croaked.

“”Bloody skulls and pumpkins you don’t wail but you’re slow.” Baekhyun pinched the bridge of his nose.

The man in the lab coat and spectacles hushed Baekhyun. “Sit up if you can, the tombstone behind you has some details that may jog your memory a bit. If not it’ll come back slowly, we’re all still remembering things too.”

Sehun sluggishly pawed around his plywood box coffin. Gripping the edges he pulled himself upright. Some soil crumbled over his hands, the mouth of the hole was still a bit up there. “How…?” He didn't get very far before being taken by a hacking fit. His voice was workable, but gravelly.

“How long have you been here? How are you alive?”

While the lab-coat man spoke, Sehun worked on standing upright, hopefully there wasn’t anywhere he needed to be. His shaky limbs were full of pins and needles.

“There’s something special about Halloweenland. We all have our odd ways of ending up here. This is the border, chances are being buried around here for a bit was enough to breathe that Halloweenland magic into your corpse.

Sehun didn’t remember how he died, he stood upright. The hole wasn’t as deep as he first estimated. Standing straight left only his body from the shoulder down in the pit.

The three men gasped and stepped back, “Though it doesn’t appear that Halloweenland magic completely saved your body."

“What?” Sehun rasped.

Spectacles man took out a mirror from his breast pocket and handed it to Sehun. “Your left cheek.”

Sehun stared dumbly at the mirror for a moment before it clicked in his head. Grabbing the mirror he tilted it to look at his left cheek, except he didn’t have one really. A large patch of flesh was missing, leaving his teeth exposed.

“I could fix it,” spectacles man suggested. “I’m pretty good. Chanyeol here is one of my works after all.” He said, patting the giant’s back. “My first try also lived here, he didn’t come out as well.”

“Kyungsoo what… Why do you have that?” Baekhyun side-eyed the spectacled man.

Kyungsoo shrugged, “Yifan’s supposed to be able to show up in it, I need to test it out.”

By now Sehun was out of the hole, which Chanyeol, the giant stitched up monster with bolts in his neck just noticed. The giant tapped Kyungsoo’s shoulder.

“Oh terribly rude of us getting carried away like that. You must need some time to recoup. We have a place ready for you, are you ready to come?”

“A place… Don’t I need to pay for that?” Sehun’s voice was steadily improving, he’d kill for a drink of water though.

“Everyone pays in their own way at some point. Don’t worry about that now though, newcomers get to take the first year easy.”

Sehun ambled along behind to other three who mostly spoke amongst themselves, not that he minded. At first they had attempted to engage Sehun with a steady current of questions. Unfortunately the answers had mostly been some variation of “I don’t know” or “I don’t remember”. The conversation among his welcome party was well interesting to listen to though. Kyungsoo’s first creation, a jiangshi (whatever _that_ was) named Zitao, had been missing for a few days. Yifan, a vampire who ran the local cafe broke up a plot to smuggle instant snow into Halloweenland, which was apparently illegal because it harmed the pumpkins and leaves. All the gossip about Halloweenland was interesting and helpful, though he couldn’t understand the significance in most of the statements made.

For somewhere called Halloweenland it didn’t look very Halloween-y at the moment. A foggy image of carved pumpkins and turning leaves flashed through Sehun's mind. The scenery on the way to his supposed new residence was more evident of a “Springland” if anything, with all the green trees and sun while the birds chirped. There were little reminders of where he was with the frequent wrought iron gates and imposing mansions as they walked along the cobblestone road, but otherwise, totally Halloween in summer.

Town Centre was a circular clearing that the cobblestone path they were on and the other cobblestone paths of the town led to. A fountain splashed merrily in the centre while surrounding it were what Sehun assumed the important mainstays of the town were. An inn, a cafe with a little bulletin board beside it, the constable’s house, he would have to check it all out later.

They passed the town centre and after walking around ten minutes they came to a lake with a sandy bank and a few meagre cabins.

“Most of the past newcomers wanted a little space so we just figured it’d be better to put all the newcomers at the lake. Everyone around here’s quite friendly, if you need anything you can pretty much ask anyone.” Chanyeol poked Baekhyun’s arm, “Well… Everyone except for the little stitch boy in the cafe. I’m sure he means well but he’s not very helpful.”

Sehun made a note to visit the cafe first.

“The cafe might be a pretty good place to start with actually. Yifan the vampire runs the place and he probably won’t charge you for the first few visits. Everyone hangs around there, if you’re willing maybe offer to help out with chores or errands. That’s usually how people get to know each other and usually the townsfolk even give rewards.”

"Oh!" Baekhyun clapped his hands together, "Joonmyeon would have killed me if I forgot! The Halloween opening parade's tomorrow. You'll probably have to participate in it next year so it'd be good if you came."

Sehun motioned with his hand _go on..._

Kyungsoo elaborated, he had become quite good charades, an unintended effect of creating many experiments that couldn't speak. "Everyone in the town participates unless they're new. We have a parade at the beginning of the month to welcome the Halloween season and then a big celebration at the end of the month."

They parted ways and Sehun investigated the cabin to no great event. A single room with a tiny little wet room cell attached. The essentials were there; A bed, cabinet, desk, and so on. Sehun found them extravagant compared to what he had before.

There was a before wasn't there?

A stretch of time passed with Sehun just hobbling around his room trying to restore his normal range of motion because he definitely was not this hindered before he went to sleep, or died apparently. He had taken a look at his "tombstone" as Kyungsoo suggested though all he found was an Oh Sehun scratched onto a small rock with "1944" inscribed under the name.

Walking around his room proved somewhat fruitful, with each circle he made he could hear joints cracking and his motions became faster and smoother. Around what must have been the millionth lap he remembered the bathtub in the wet room. He probably didn't look too nice after being dead for god knows how long, cleaning himself up might be a good place to start.

***

Town Centre was lively the next morning. Considering how small the town seemed Sehun thought it quite impressive the amount of stalls that were being set up. As he had decided the day before, Sehun wandered over to the cafe. A nameless cafe it seemed, only indicator of purpose being a swinging wooden sign in the shape of a mug.

Quaint. The smell of bread and sweets had permeated the air around the cafe and it was much stronger inside. A wacky cast of characters flitted to and fro inside bringing a kind of liveliness to the place while a tall blond man in a black cape took orders behind the glass case. What Sehun took to be ghosts glided around delivering orders, but what caught Sehun's attention the most was the "stitch boy" Baekhyun mentioned sitting at the table furthest back.

It had to be stitch boy, he certainly looked stitched together. A wild shock of pink curls served as his hair, curls that almost reached large glassy brown eyes. Sehun had thought him to be a doll at first but those eyes changed his mind.

The boy's eyes were narrowed. He sat on the table while two small girls in pointy hats and black robes flanked his sides. Both were armed with a large bundle of what appeared to be long wires, each with a tiny hook attached at the end. Sehun winced, the girls were in the midst of forcing the hooks through all the boy's joints. The boy looked murderous as another wire and hook was forced through his elbow, though Sehun found it hard to believe the action hurt the boy at all given his lack of response.

"Jinri I'm done!" crowed the girl on stitch boy's right side, the side where his arm looked to be crafted of pink striped fabric. "Let me finish attaching the wires to the controller and then I'll help you okay?"

Sehun watched as the girl began attaching the wires that were strung through the right side of stitch boy's body to two wooden crosses. He understood what she was making by that moment, something was trying to surface in his memories. What was it called... A pinocchio, the girls were making a pinocchio out of the stitch boy.

"May I help you?" A smooth voice chimed next to Sehun and he nearly jumped out of his skin. The man who had been manning the counter was now standing next to him, Sehun had no clue when the man could have sidled over.

"Nah I'm good." The previous evening had been productive in that Sehun managed to remaster a majority of his previous functions such as basic motor control. Talking came after he worked out how to drink water without it leaking through the hole in his cheek.

"His name's Lu Han, Soojung and Jinri are preparing him for tonight's festivities but I'll introduce you to him after they're done." The man pointed to a table on the opposite end of the cafe from stitch boy, "My name's Yifan. Tell you what, why don't you sit over there and I'll fix up a cappuccino then join you, we'll have a chat."

Sehun watched Yifan prepare the cappuccino, going through the motions as if he had done it a million times before. Though shortly after Yifan began adding foam the two girls had left stitch boy, Lu Han, alone and seemingly fuming at his table.

"Uh, can I sit with Lu Han? He looks kind of upset." Sehun asked looking over at the back table where Lu Han was angrily rattling his wires and the crosses they were attached to.

"Sure, go sit down and I'll bring your cappuccino over when it's done."

With that, Sehun sat down at across from Lu Han at the little round table in the back corner. Judging by how Lu Han continued rattling his new attachments it seemed Lu Han still hadn't noticed him. Sehun took the opportunity to take in more of the doll's appearance. A line of stitches crossed over the bridge of Lu Han's nose, while the bottom half of his face appeared to be composed of a cream coloured burlap, the top half was void of any kind of fabric texture. Sehun considered the idea that maybe Lu Han was partly composed of porcelain as well as rags, maybe even _flesh_ going by how Lu Han's large brown eyes were alight with anger.

"Hi, I'm Sehun. Do you need help getting those off?" Seemed like a good place to start.

Lu Han looked up then held his hand out. Sehun reached out and shook it, desperately trying to convince himself that it wasn't awkward.

Any moment now Lu Han would respond, maybe introduce himself. Sehun stared at what he took to be his mouth, a thin horizontal line with large crosses spaced a centimetre apart crossing over it. Any moment it would part to offer a response.

"Don't bother, also here's your cappuccino," Yifan chimed in from behind Sehun, setting the drink down on the table. "He hasn't got a mouth, see?"

Lu Han slapped the table with his right hand, constructed of mostly purple fabric with white stripes. It made a very faint thwacking noise upon coming into contact with the surface but it was the motion that counted.

"Well apparently it's more complicated than that, either it's stitched shut or that one's just for decoration." Yifan shrugged and walked back to the counter. He picked up a red mug from the sink and started washing up.

"You don't know for sure?" Sehun hadn't felt this invested in anything for a while. "Lu Han doesn't write?" He added as an afterthought.

"He writes, that's the only reason we know anything about him at all. But he's slow and he said his hand cramps up if he writes too much." Finished with that mug, Yifan picked up a blue one to polish.

"Ah, well then." Sehun paused, "Can it be fixed?"

"Who knows?" Yifan set out all the clean mugs by the sink.

Sehun tried to put the pieces together, _doll... Stitches... Fix... Sew?_

He shook his head, he needed a thinking break, "Hm."

Pushing himself up he slowly shuffled out of the cafe.

Yifan assembled the now clean mugs to be shelved in alternating colours, red blue red blue. "We haven't had a zombie before, he's pretty fun don't you think?"

Lu Han stared at the wooden door, still swinging from Sehun's exit.

\---

The crowd screamed as the mayor, a ghost named Joonmyeon rose out of the stage while Sehun stood far off to the side with a bemused grin. All of the villagers were certainly spooky in a cute family-friendly way. Chanyeol and Kyungsoo made a remarkable parade float themed like a secret laboratory, though judging from one glance at Kyungsoo they probably didn't expend any effort coming up with the set, maybe just retrieving some things from around his house.

The last float was a stage that was supposed to host the last performance of the evening. Rumour around the village was that it was a play. Sehun thought the theory was reasonable enough, all that was on the stage was a huge wooden scaffolding with a red velvet curtain hanging from it.

"How has everyone's evening been so far?" The mayor asked through a megaphone, how he was holding said megaphone was beyond Sehun.

"Spooooky!" The crowd chorused.

The mayor laughed at the warm response, "Well it's about to get spookier. Please anticipate the final performance of the night! Without further ado here is Pinocchio and the Big Bad Wolf!"

As Joonmyeon floated off the stage the crowd echoed Sehun's bewilderment at the odd title, little "ooh"s and "ahh"s could be heard from all around.

The red curtain dropped from the scaffolding and the crowd went silent.

Behind the red curtain was a crude cardboard diorama of a forest. The two girls who were messing with Lu Han in the cafe earlier stood on a high ledge, both with a cross in each hand. While the crowd around him broke into raucous cheering, horror welled up in Sehun’s chest.

From what Sehun could tell, “Jinri”, the girl that needed help preparing Lu Han, controlled his left side while the other girl controlled the right. Not pinocchio a puppet! _That’s_ what it was, Sehun slapped his forehead. 

Dehumanising Lu Han didn’t end there apparently. 

_“Hello everybody!”_ Sehun gawked at the wires pulling Lu Han ramrod straight as he waved to the audience, clearly Jinri was doing the voice for him. _“I’m little Pinocchio! I heard there’s been a dangerous wolf in the forest lately, could everyone please tell me when they see a wolf?”_

The audience cheered their affirmation and thus the story of Pinocchio and the big bad wolf had begun. Much to Sehun’s awe the girls were quite good at manoeuvering Lu Han, sparing him a fair deal of humiliation. Evidently this wasn’t the first time the girls had done something like this, if the murmurs around him of “another fine show from Soojung and Jinri” were any indicator. He looked on as the girls continued introducing the story, taking in Lu Han’s appearance as their meeting in the cafe hadn’t really afforded him the opportunity for that. 

According to everyone else Lu Han was a rag doll, but what Sehun didn’t realise until now was that Lu Han was _literally_ a doll made out of rags, bits, and bobs, a fact that his outfit showcased nicely. The doll sported a pressed pair of navy dress shorts with two columns of golden buttons at the front. Attached to them was a pair of black braces that criss-crossed at the back. His top was short-sleeved as well, a white dress shirt mildly rumpled and tucked into his shorts. Topping off the whole outfit was a large red bow that had a round golden bell hanging from it, adorning each of Lu Han’s movements with a little jingle.

The short-sleeved shirt and shorts showcased the “patchiness” of Lu Han’s physical makeup. There were no patches but his physical appearance was a bit… Complex. Sehun had noted that Lu Han’s right arm was a dark purple with white stripe spiralling down his arm, but on his other arm was a deep blue swatch that covered his whole arm up to his wrist, patterned with white polka dots. His right leg? Green and white argyle print that stopped mid-thigh, from there up it was the same purple as his right arm but instead of a stripe this purple swatch was patterned with white polka dots. For his left leg, light pink and patterned similarly to his right arm, a white stripe spiralling down and… Wait where were his shoes?

“A wolf a wolf!” The audience cried as Baekhyun came out on the stage, pulling Sehun out of his thoughts.

 _“Oh my! Where?”_ Jinri exclaimed while she and the other girl made Lu Han mime the motions. Sehun was surprised to find a playful smile. At the least it appeared Lu Han didn’t entirely hate the ordeal. While Jinri played the ventriloquist sometimes Lu Han would smile or move his hands in jaunty motions appropriate of the accompanying dialogue or how the girls were moving him.

“There! There!” The children in the crowd all but screeched pointing to Baekhyun who quickly hid behind a cardboard bush, porting a comically devious grin.

 _“I don’t see anything!”_ Lu Han attempted to cup his cheeks but the girls forced his arms to shrug, Baekhyun reemerged from behind the cardboard bush.

“Look out Lulu!” A girl from the audience cried out.

Too late. The second Lu Han moved to turn Baekhyun pounced on him and both of the puppeteers shrieked. 

In true dog-like fashion, Baekhyun bit down on Lu Han’s shoulder and jerked him around briefly before letting go, “You’re no boy! Where is the meat?” He announced in mock anger.

Sehun thought his eyes were playing tricks on him when he saw the sparkle from Lu Han’s eyes fade just a bit. 

Lu Han clutched his shoulder, _“This is what happens when you prey on the little boys and girls of the village Mister Wolf.”_ Jinri’s voice echoed while Lu Han rummaged through his pockets. _“In the dead of the night when there’s no one in the old cemetery their grieving mothers come in.”_ Lu Han’s hands stilled, _“That’s when they dig them up and fix them into little dolls like me so you can’t eat them Mister Wolf.”_

The audience gasped as Lu Han pulled a short blade out of his pocked, with a grand flourish from the girls he gently pressed the knife against Baekhyun’s abdomen. The wolf made a dramatic show of expiring, releasing a piercing howl and crumpling to the ground.

 _”Now that the wolf is dead we can cut his tummy open and retrieve all the parts needed to make everyone real again.”_ Jinri said jubilantly, Lu Han seemed to have lost his previous passion in playing his role as Pinocchio. The two puppeteers turned Lu Han so that he faced the audience, Jinri dipped the cross that controlled Lu Han’s head and torso, manipulating him into a deep bow. _”And I couldn’t have done it without you all. Thank you everyone!”_

The audience cheered. Given the nature of Lu Han’s mouth it was a bit difficult to decipher his expression, though seeing the grim line his mouth was set in, Sehun was pretty sure Lu Han wasn’t as pleased as everyone else.

\---

On his way home, all throughout the evening, and up until he was ready to turn in for the night, Sehun found himself plagued by thoughts, some were about Lu Han, such as why no one had attempted to fix his mouth, was he okay after tonight’s events, and other things.

But mostly his thoughts were about blue shoes.

Sehun clutched his head, he couldn't stop thinking about blue shoes. Baby blue shoes, why wouldn't they leave his mind? Baby blue shoes with a bow on the tip and Sehun angrily shook his head. Blue shoes weren't relevant! Except the next image that flashed through his mind caught his interest. Baby blue shoes being darned. A pair of hands. One hand holding the shoe the other...

Sehun shut his eyes tight and pressed his hands harder to his head. This was important. The other hand held something shiny and Sehun swore he knew what the shiny thing was.

Collapsing on his side, Sehun haphazardly tugged the duvet over himself. It wasn't impossible to make Lu Han a new mouth, of that he was certain.

Moments later something odd happened, his tummy grumbled. Evidently even in death he wasn't exempt from eating. Sehun laid on his back and stared at the ceiling, even weirder was that he actually felt hungry. Really, one would have thought that these weren't issues that the dead had to deal with.

The cabin was generously stocked with fishing line, Sehun knew what to do with that. God knows what he was doing in life that enabled him to fish and kind of sew but Sehun was now grateful for it. Sure enough behind the desk he found a dusty fishing rod and went to work lining it.

Outside didn't feel like real October. Memories of bitterly frosty nights and hot days in the Autumn came back to Sehun as he sat on the shore with the re-lined fishing rod. The general picture lingered with him but not the little details. Images of frosty footprints in the frozen mud flickered through his mind but for the life of him Sehun couldn't remember what he was doing.

A tug on the line pulled Sehun out of his memories. The fish couldn't have been that big, not much struggling was happening on the other end and in short order he had nicely sized fish flopping and dangling on the hook, about the length of his forearm.

They were all familiar motions. Gripping the fish tightly as he unhooked it, he cast a glance at the fire pit several meters down the shore, the normal course of action was evident. The pit was blackened from previous use and there was spit propped up above the pit. Some Samaritan had even left a lighter next to the site. Sehun looked back to the fish wriggling in his hands, shiny, a good amount of meat, the flapping gills and eye called out to him.

Sehun ignored the fire pit and attacked the fish, teeth first.

Dimly he registered the fish thrashing in his bite and fins flapping. Without relinquishing his bite Sehun pulled away, tearing away the whole chunk of muscle where the side fin was and pulling some excess skin along with the hunk. Earlier the fish scales had shimmered a lovely silver under the glow of the moon. Sehun gnawed on the raw fish meat some while the skin dangled out the corner of his mouth, later slurping it in so that it no longer hung out if his mouth.

It was then he realised that the continual shrieking in the background hadn't been in his head. He called out to the bushes, "Uhh is anyone there?"

Silence...

Sehun went back to eating the fish and the shrieking started right back up. He held the now still fish away from his face and examined it. It wasn't the fish screaming was it? He then caught a glimpse of the fish’s thin bones and felt a faint stirring in his mind. It looked like the thing darning the blue shoes.

Plucking out one of the bones and laying it the side, he took another bite aiming straight for the throat. The screaming continued.

\---

At supper time the following day Sehun found himself in Yifan's cafe again, sitting at Lu Han's table, and resolute in not mentioning the previous evening’s parade.

Sehun didn't wait for Lu Han to finish preparing his sketchbook and pencil before posing his question, "What happened to your shoes?"

 _"Lost."_ Lu Han scrawled as soon as he found a clean page.

Before Sehun could continue a group of children, the ones who had strung Lu Han up for the parade, ran up to their table.

"Lulu this one's bad! Really really bad we saw him last night! Didn't we Jinri!?"

"Y-yeah!" The taller girl piped up, "He ate the fish whole we saw him didn't we Soojung!?"

"We saw him eat a fish whole!"

"He didn't even chew he ate it in one bite!"

 

"Yeah and then he spat the skeleton out! It was totally clean!! That's what he'll do to you Lulu!"

"I did not eat it whole!" Sehun responded indignantly.

The girls shot each matching poorly suppressed grins.

"The sprinkles and frosting aren't ingredients for witchcraft! I thought I told you two to go bother Kyungsoo!"

"Uncle Yifan!" The girls screeched in unison, chasing after their new distraction as he walked out from the back room.

Sehun watched until all three of them disappeared to the back before he placed the fish bone that resembled the shiny _needle_ in his thoughts on the table. A needle, he knew what that was, he used one before at some point in his life. When though, he couldn't remember. The needle had been his project for most of the day, boring a hole through the base and working a thread through.

Upon seeing the makeshift needle Lu Han's eyes widened.

"I didn't eat it whole!" Sehun insisted to which Lu Han covered his mouth and Sehun could see his eyes crinkle. Back to the topic at hand, "Is this familiar to you?" Sehun was sure he was on the right track, Lu Han had a reaction to the needle which had to count for something.

Lu Han held his hand out flat, palm down, then tilted it back and forth.

"Huh?"

Lu Han rolled his eyes and picked up his sketchbook, _"A bit."_ He wrote.

"Oh? How so?" Sehun would take anything he could get.

Lu Han pointed to the bone needle then to the stitches along his arms.

Another set of images came to him and Sehun allowed his head to fall forward and hit the table. The hand darning the blue shoes, what on Earth was it doing? He saw the needle puncture the shoe, go through, then come back to puncture the shoe again. It punctured the shoe again and again in the same spot and that was the part Sehun had difficulty grasping. What was the needle doing?

A pat on his head brought Sehun back to Earth to a perplexed looking Lu Han. Maybe Lu Han knew, "Do you feel anything in your doll parts? Would you be able to demonstrate how the fish bone works?"

Lu Han looked down and reached for his sketchbook. He gestured to what little flesh he had, the upper half of his face. _"No feeling in rag parts."_ Then pointing to the stitches where his mouth was he wrote, _"Only know how to do these."_ Afterward he gestured to the stitching along his arms and neck, _"Wasn't awake."_

That brought an interesting point to light. "So your creator wasn't responsible for the mouth stitches?"

Lu Han shook his head then flipped through his sketchbook until he came to a drawing of a child with her back turned. He pointed to the needle and Sehun handed it to him. A generous amount of fishing line was looped through the base. Lu Han punctured the paper with the bone needle to which Sehun gasped, that was unexpected. Just like the stitching on his mouth Lu Han cross-stitched along the drawing's spine, then finishing it off with a long line that crossed over the rest of the stitches.

Tracing a finger over the stitches that now lined the drawing's spine Sehun thought of something interesting Lu Han revealed earlier, "You were awake for the person stitching your mouth shut but you knew they didn't make you?"

Lu Han nodded while flipping back to the cleaner pages of his sketchbook. _"Couldn't move then."_ He quickly gestured to his mouth, _"Felt different. He didn't know what he was doing."_ Lu Han then abruptly dropped the pencil and massaged his hand.

"Do you want me to do it?" Sehun asked, extending a hand out to him. He figured Lu Han was incredibly helpful today, he should try to repay the favour somehow.

Akin to a child Lu Han shoved his hand into Sehun's outstretched palm, looking up at him expectantly while Sehun had to swallow a laugh at the behaviour. Previously Sehun had thought that Lu Han's hand had just been made of a peachier coloured burlap, but holding it now made it apparent that Lu Han's hand was also real. No wonder it cramped up.

There was a train of thought Sehun had been going down for some time now. While he hadn't made the conscious decision to fix Lu Han's mouth. That was the natural conclusion to this newfound interest in sewing. Sehun dug his thumb into a large knot he found in Lu Han's palm, he had more work to do before he could suggest the idea to Lu Han.

Before taking his leave from the cafe Sehun turned to Lu Han. "Would it be okay if I took the drawing you used the bone on?" He used vague wording on purpose, he didn't want to give anyone the impression that he could sew just yet, especially not Lu Han.

Lu Han carefully tore the drawing out of his sketchbook then held it out toward Sehun. Taking the drawing, Sehun stared over it for a moment, “One more question.”

Lu Han looked up at him.

“What’s the bell for? Just wondering.”

Lu Han bristled, bell merrilly tinkling along with his coarser motions and he angrily scribbled in the notebook. _”Always there, Yifan said it’s to keep me from getting lost.”_

\---

Yifan's cafe stocked fairly nice paninis that were made fresh every day. Sehun once asked him how.

_"This cafe is actually a labour of love on the whole town's behalf. I only make the bread and desserts. Well, I assemble everything too. But the stuff comes from different places." Yifan punched air out of the dough he was kneading, "These are a baker's hands don't you think? Large and warm so I think it helps the yeast rise. I tried having Lu Han do it once but it didn't come out nearly as nice."_

All of the villagers conveniently had little skills that they remembered. The mayor, a ghost named Joonmyeon had the largest garden in town. Apparently his body just went through the same motions it did when it was alive. A small crowd tended to gather whenever Joonmyeon went out to his garden.

_"They want to learn, and I don't really know what I'm doing myself so I guess this is the next best thing."_

Baekhyun somewhat literally "brought home the bacon". Every night there were several hours that he couldn't account for. Then in the morning he'd wake up next to the carcass of some creature, caked in dirt and blood.

_"The funny thing is I don't think I'm eating anything while I'm out there. Or if I am then my night time adventures are a lot more strenuous than I thought." Baekhyun shook his head, this time he had brought back a large pig. "Where did this thing even come from? I don't think there are any pigs in the forest."_

Today Sehun made an excursion out to Kyungsoo's laboratory to ask about making a mouth for Lu Han. If Kyungsoo could bring people back from the dead or construct them out of different parts, making a mouth for a doll would be simple wouldn't it?

Sehun didn't understand why Kyungsoo kept his lab so secret. Far away from the cobblestone roads and buildings where most of Halloweenland's residents lived was a small stable in a clearing, and apparently under the stable was the laboratory where Kyungsoo and his creations lived. Sehun heard laughter coming from the stable.

"Lu Han stop fussing you'll be fine! Even if you fell you don't weigh anything so it wouldn't hurt!" Chanyeol guffawed while he tossed Lu Han onto a dairy cow, seemingly much to the terror of Lu Han who was glaring daggers at Chanyeol, hitting him up until he was tossed onto the cow. As soon as he landed on the cow's back Lu Han clung to its horns for dear life.

"Oh don't be such a baby! I'm jealous that Moktar isn't even making a fuss right now! When I tried to climb on she gored me." Lu Han didn't look consoled at all by Chanyeol's words, going by the shut eyes and clinging.

Sehun walked over to Kyungsoo who sat on a crate busily scribbling in a notebook, unperturbed by the roughhousing meters away from him. "Uh... Are they okay? Lu Han looks pretty scared."

"He shouldn't be." Kyungsoo said without looking up from his notebook. "He's full of fluff and maybe blood, I don't know I did a squish test while he was sleeping once but I don't think he had as many fleshy parts back then."

Sehun nearly dropped his sketchpad in horror, "A squish test?"

Kyungsoo waved his hand, "Or a palpatory exam if you want to go by the book!" Later he muttered, "Names and regulations, how bothersome," with contempt.

Something Kyungsoo said had piqued Sehun's interest, "You said he wasn't as fleshy back then?"

"I'm assuming he was all rags at some point. I think he's been steadily gaining flesh, not fast enough for me though. I want to see how his insides are transforming but he won't let me cut him up."

Sehun absently listened to Kyungsoo but his gaze remained on Lu Han clinging to the cow while Chanyeol tried to get the cow to walk faster. Eventually Sehun decided he couldn't take seeing Lu Han like that anymore, he walked brusquely over to the cow and held his arms out, "Lu Han, I'll help you down."

Lu Han cracked open one eye. He slowly sat up but made no move to jump onto Sehun.

"It's too scary to jump?"

Lu Han nodded.

Sehun stepped closer and hovered his hands over Lu Han's waist, "What if I picked you up? Is that okay?"

Lu Han looked up to the sky for a moment, then looked back to Sehun. He nodded again.

Sehun placed his hands firmly on Lu Han's waist, holding the doll up then lowering him to the ground in short order, doll clinging to him all the while. Lu Han scuttled over to the chickens the moment Sehun released him.

While Sehun watched Lu Han play Kyungsoo broke him out of his daze, "So why'd you come over here anyway? Aside from ruining Chanyeol's fun that is."

"Do you have any idea how to go about making a new mouth for Lu Han?" Sehun looked on as Lu Han squat by the chickens and pulled out their loose feathers.

Kyungsoo looked up from his notebook first the first time, "Cut one maybe? I'm pretty sure there's cutting involved."

"Well yeah I'll need to cut off his current one but he'll need a new one too."

Kyungsoo harrumphed, "Well in that case I'd say try to find how much of a new mouth he needs. Would it be sufficient if you just cut the stitching off? Or does it go further than that?" He crossed out everything he had written on the notepad, "But you have to remember. Lu Han's a doll, I don't play with toys so I don't know how to fix him."

Sehun's chest flared at that last statement, "Thank you for your advice. I'll be leaving now." He took one last look at Lu Han playing with the chickens before heading off. A doll.

\---

The next few days Sehun found himself very busy, forgoing his daily cafe trips for drawing out potential new ragdoll mouths and practising his slowly returning sewing abilities. In retrospect, he felt guilty about neglecting those cafe trips.

Kyungsoo had a point about Lu Han’s mouth. Not in the cutting part but it would be useful to determine how much of a new mouth Lu Han needed. Before that he had to at least create some evidence that he knew what he was doing first. 

The cabin ended up having a fair amount more than Sehun initially anticipated. In the bottom drawer of the desk he found a makeup kit of all things. Not inherently useful to his work but at least he could colour things now. 

So those few days ended up being very busy. Often he found himself thinking of Lu Han’s face and what would look nicer than the current stitchy mess he had for a mouth. Ideas and memories came to him while he fished or drank coffee that Yifan had delivered.

_”He says Lu Han misses you,” Chanyeol teased, handing off a toastie and still warm cappuccino to Sehun_

_”Tch.” Somehow Sehun doubted that, Lu Han was fairly high demand in the village, be it the witches and other children… Or Chanyeol. Still though, maybe he would pay him a visit soon._

He didn’t end up having the chance to visit Lu Han.

It started one afternoon when he left the cabin for a rare breath of fresh air, only to find an unexpected sight.

“Hey what’s up?” Sehun walked down to the lakeshore a few steps away from the door of his cabin to join Baekhyun. There were probably question marks all around him, fact of the matter was no one but the occasional child came down to the lake for the most part.

Getting a closer look at Baekhyun after Sehun had sat down tipped him off. Every night was arguably a rough night for Baekhyun, Sehun couldn’t imagine the wolf transformation process to be smooth but if Baekhyun’s eye circles and the bits of fluff that littered his entire body were any indicator, last night must have been particularly rough.

Baekhyun shook his head and mumbled, “I just woke up.”

Sehun passed today’s cappuccino to Baekhyun which the other accepted gratefully, “Did you get in a fight with a pillow or something?” He asked, motioning to the white fluffy bits.

Baekhyun nearly finished the entire mug, again he shook his head, “Close but worse.”

Sehun raised an eyebrow.

Baekhyun was trembling as he slowly retrieved something from his pocket. What hit Sehun first was a sudden feeling of dread that made his body go rigid, hot on its heels was a tiny jingling sound and the sight of a scratched up bell. There was some blood on it as well? That couldn’t be right, the red on it had to be something else.

“I woke up with this near me.”

That was enough of an explanation really. “Are you okay to move around?” Sehun asked tentatively, he didn’t want to push Baekhyun but leaving Lu Han injured in the woods wasn’t ideal.

Baekhyun nodded wearily, “I can smell out where exactly he is to be honest. The thing is I don’t think he’ll be pleased to see me at the moment so I’d rather someone else retrieve him.”

The words hung in the air for a moment. 

Sehun swallowed, “I can be that person.”

\---

If one walked along the lakeshore by Sehun’s cabin for long enough they would find themselves in the woods. It wasn’t a real secret, Sehun could see them from his cabin, though generally only Yifan and Baekhyun ventured into them. 

_”Is there something bad there? How come everyone seems so apprehensive about the woods?”_

_The delivery of the day from Chanyeol was the usual cappuccino and a toastie with tuna, Sehun found himself fishing more as a hobby now and donated whatever surplus he caught to Yifan’s cafe. The villagers had all been pleasantly surprised to find Sehun attempting to pull some of his weight already._

_“Dunno,” Chanyeol shrugged, “I heard the border isn’t far beyond here though. Apparently we’ll die if we cross it.” For the grim topic, Chanyeol looked rather nonplussed._

_“For real?”_

_“No clue.”_

_Sehun was curious, “You’ve never tried?”_

_“Would you?”_

_Sehun thought about it, while he enjoyed his recent reanimation there was that other thing… “Aren’t we all kind of dead though?”_

_“No that’s just you, Yifan, and the ghosties.”_

“Lu Han shouldn’t be far from here, do you want me to show you the way back?”

“Oh! Uh…” Baekhyun had caught Sehun off guard, “Nah I’ll be fine.”

Baekhyun turned around, “In that case I’ll be taking my leave now.” His head drooped, “I need to prepare a proper apology.”

Sehun waved goodbye then trudged forward. Unlike Baekhyun he didn’t have a hypersensitive sense of smell to look for a missing Lu Han. What had Lu Han even been doing out here anyway? According to Yifan, Lu Han wasn’t allowed out of the cafe without supervision. A secret mission of some kind? 

Sehun kept his eyes peeled for any signs of fluffy pink hair and brightly patterned rags but all that lay in his path was leaves and bramble, also what appeared to be bits of cotton plant.

Wait...

Squatting down, Sehun picked up one of the flyaway bits of white fluff, and sure enough, it matched what was strewn all over Baekhyun. This made finding Lu Han considerably easier. Ready to follow the trail of fluff he flicked away the bit in his hand.

Before Sehun could head off he caught a glimpse of the ground and winced. There had been an awful rain the night before, happily compensated by generous sunshine in the present. However left on the ground was a superior record of Baekhyun’s adventure the night before. 

Deep tracks of a wolf man marred the ground and Sehun ran a hand through his hair, he was an idiot.

Without further ado he followed the tracks, the route they led him on seemed about right. As he walked further the white fluff, presumably Lu Han’s stuffing, was becoming more noticeable. Now they were closer to clumps than the little fuzzies on the path before.

Not even ten steps further Sehun found his first clue in the form of a green and white argyle print leg sticking out of a bush.

“Lu Han!?” He shouted, running toward the bush, “Are you okay!? Can you move!?”

He stood next to the bush and waited for a response, “Lu Han?”

Nothing.

Sehun poked the leg, still no response. Maybe Lu Han was passed out? He grabbed the ankle then gave it a hard tug, only to stumble backward and fall flat on his rear. 

The leg hadn’t been attached to anything, Sehun gawked at the disembodied limb in his hand. Hopefully Lu Han was okay, on the bright side, this meant he wasn’t tracking a moving target, or at least a very slow one. On the down side, Lu Han wouldn’t be able to escape anything with just one leg. 

Sehun suddenly felt something nudge his back. Whirling around, he saw a purple striped arm laying behind him and immediately the torrent of profanity he had prepared to shout died in his throat. Surely the arm wasn’t there before.

Right before his eyes the hand flexed and the arm began pulling itself toward him, like some warped spider. Sehun had a feeling that this wasn’t the most bizarre thing he’d ever seen but it was mildly frustrating that now at best he had two of Lu Han’s appendages with no Lu Han in sight. 

Just then the arm finished crawling to his front and flopped over, index finger extended. Sehun only stared at it, he wasn’t really prepared for this situation.

Again the arm angrily gestured and it struck Sehun that it was pointing. He looked off into the direction Lu Han’s arm was pointing and the Earth tilted just a bit.

Really stupid. A few steps away was a small clearing. White clumps of doll stuffing were strewn all over the ground, and in the middle of it all was Lu Han, far less than intact. 

Scooping up the leg and arm, Sehun rushed over to the clearing and knelt down next to Lu Han giving him a once over. It wasn’t a pleasant sight, Lu Han’s eyes were closed but if he could manipulate his arm surely he was fine? Both legs had been torn off, from around his upper thighs. The detachment site was marked by frayed threads and fluff spilling out of the ends. That was pretty much blood for Lu Han, Sehun felt his heart hurt. Lu Han’s usually neat outfit, had long claw marks over the front. He had only managed to keep one arm attached. Baekhyun had certainly done a number on him.

“Lu Han?”

The doll’s eyes fluttered open.

“Um… I can fix you, but the stuff is at my place. Would you mind if I carried you back there? I’m assuming being fixed is on your priorities list.”

With the one arm he still had, Lu Han reached for Sehun.

Sehun held onto the hand, “Before I pick you up do you have any idea where your other leg might be?”

Lu Han pointed toward a nearby bush, like the argyle leg, this one was also sticking out foot first.

“Ah.”

\---

It didn’t take too long to lug Lu Han back to the cabin, around ten minutes though it seemed longer. Sehun hoped the experience wasn’t too demeaning for him, given the unusual state of Lu Han’s form at the present Sehun had to exercise some creativity in carrying all of him back. 

Unfortunately, the easiest solution ended up being holding Lu Han like a bride while Lu Han had an arm wrapped around Sehun’s neck, disembodied limbs piled on Lu Han’s chest.

“Can you open the door for me Lu Han?”

The doll nodded and Sehun bent his knees so that Lu Han was level with the door. Unwinding his arm from around Sehun’s neck, Lu Han turned the handle and pushed. His arm quickly shot back to Sehun’s chest when Sehun walked into the cabin.

Lu Han tensed in Sehun’s arms when they stepped in. Sehun laughed weakly, “Ah yeah, sorry I didn’t tell you anything. I wanted to try making you a mouth.”

Lu Han’s eyes widened as he glanced around the room, strewn all over the floor were papers depicting the many mouths that Sehun had devised. Some of the papers even had practice stitching on them.

“I’ll ask for your permission after I sew your limbs back on, think about it okay?” Sehun sat Lu Han down on the edge of the bed then took the arm and legs off of Lu Han’s chest and placed them to the side. If Lu Han’s legs were attached at the moment they would have been dangling over the edge. As it was all Lu Han could do was awkwardly grip the sheets with his one arm and try to maintain balance.

“I’m going to start with your arm,” Sehun declared, grabbing said limb. “You said you don’t have any feeling in your rag parts right? Will this hurt you?”

Lu Han shook his head and Sehun released a breath he wasn’t aware he was holding. That Lu Han would be in pain was his biggest concern. “Did it hurt when Baekhyun attacked you?” He asked, walking over to the desk to pick up his trusty fish bone needle and string. Turning around he saw Lu Han shake his head again.

“Hmm seems like you’ll need new clothes too.” Lu Han watched as Sehun prodded the site where his arm was ripped off, he had a fair amount of stub remaining. 

Sehun continued to chatter, half the time Lu Han wasn’t sure if Sehun was addressing him or himself but at least it wasn’t silent. He listened as Sehun absent mindedly talked about how the cabin had some clothes that would most likely be too large for him, though Sehun quickly added that he could tailor them to fit. Lu Han’s eyes slid shut, the feeling of Sehun gently tending to his arm was a familiar comfort. He couldn’t place where it was familiar from however. It made Lu Han think back to _Him_. Lu Han wasn’t awake for when _He_ had been working on him but he remembered the feeling, how gentle _He_ was…

“Ah!” 

Lu Han opened his eyes, Sehun had stopped and he was frowning. 

“Your arm needs replacement stuffing! I don’t think I have anything that could work though.” Sehun was mumbling to himself again. Lu Han tugged on Sehun’s sleeve while praying that he didn’t lose balance, it was okay if he was under-stuffed he didn’t -...

A loud rip echoed through the small room as Sehun tore his pillow in half, sending feathers everywhere, “That should do it.” He said happily.

That put Sehun out of a pillow didn’t it? Lu Han was perplexed, surely Sehun ripping his pillow apart was unnecessary. He quickly retracted that thought when Sehun began stuffing feathers into his arm. In short order he had Lu Han’s arm properly stuffed and completely reattached.

“Move it around,” Sehun encouraged, then placed his hands on Lu Han’s waist, “I’ll keep you balanced.”

Lu Han moved his newly repaired arm, astounded to find it in full working order. His eyes darted toward the stitches and he nearly jumped. They were exactly the same as before, even Lu Han couldn’t work out how to do that kind of stitch so how did Sehun do it?

“Is it okay?”

Sehun smiled as Lu Han eagerly nodded his head, “I’m glad.” Moving his hands to Lu Han’s shoulders he mentally braced himself for a possibly awkward situation, “I-I’m going to do your legs now.” He was dead, he shouldn’t be able to blush, yet somehow he felt his cheeks heat up anyway. “U-um I apologise right now for any inappropriate touching.” 

Sehun pulled the desk stool closer and sat on it. Readying everything he grabbed the wrecked pillow bundle closer then gently tilted Lu Han back so that he was laying flat on his back. He mumbled a quick “Sorry” as he cupped the sides of Lu Han’s rear with both hands, adjusting the doll so that his upper back was still on the bed while his bottom was on Sehun’s knees.

It didn’t make a difference to him that Lu Han wasn’t composed of flesh, the intimacy of the situation lingered on his mind. No matter how many times he tried to assure himself that things would only be awkward if he made them awkward his mind kept darting to the subtle weight of Lu Han’s bottom on his knees, how comfortably Lu Han’s thigh fit in his hand. 

_No,_ Sehun shut his eyes tight then opened them, he had to focus now. Lu Han would probably throttle him if he didn’t have his legs aligned properly when he sewed them back on, focusing would be responsible. Still though, Lu Han’s thigh was soft under his fingertips as he wound the needle back and forth. Occasionally stuffing a few feathers in to maintain shape.

When Sehun finished attaching the leg he froze as the leg hooked itself over his shoulder. If Sehun didn’t know better he would have thought it was flirtatious, though thinking about it, that was probably the most comfortable place for Lu Han to rest his leg.

Liking Lu Han never came up on his mind, he was simply drawn in. If asked to explain it Sehun was certain he wouldn’t be able to. He took Lu Han’s other leg and held it to the corresponding leg stump, he had to finish this then leave immediately after, before he did something stupid. The end game wasn’t to save Lu Han, it wasn’t solely to rehabilitate him either. Spending time with Lu Han also gave Sehun something to do but that wasn’t it either, somehow holding Lu Han and gently tending to him like this felt so familiar and right. Maybe he had been a doctor before?

“Hey, get up,” Sehun murmured, smacking Lu Han’s bum. “Walk around for a little bit, your legs should be fine now but I want to be certain.” 

Lu Han lightly jabbed his heel against Sehun’s back before sliding his leg off Sehun’s shoulder. All his limbs appeared to be more or less at the same state they were before that unfortunate run in with Baekhyun in the forest. A thank you to Sehun was in order but how? He didn’t have his sketchbook on him.

Frustrated he glared down at his hands. By now he should have been long over his muteness, but it wasn’t his fault that he constantly found himself reminded that he couldn’t communicate with everyone else like a normal person. He had already lost count of all the times he wished he could punch his message into others or throw words at them or something.

Instead he threw his arms around Sehun’s neck. He saw someone doing that in a picture a long long time ago. This would have to suffice for a thank you.

“Oh.” Sehun gasped as Lu Han held onto him, that reminded him of something.

“So what do you think about my previous offer? Fixing your mouth?”

Lu Han pulled back and nodded. That wasn’t a question, it wasn’t as if he had anything to lose.

Apparently Sehun had thought otherwise given how his eyes widened. “Really? In that case can you take a seat on the bed again? I want to check something.”

Lu Han did as asked then found Sehun sitting next to him brushing a thumb over his mouth stitches. “Okay since apparently no one bothered to find out I need to ask you some questions. I’m feeling something hard behind your mouth stitches, do you have a mouth?”

Lu Han looked down, he wasn’t so sure how to answer that. He did his “kinda maybe” gesture.

“Well, are the stitches inhibiting your ability to use your mouth?”

Lu Han shook his head.

“Then may I cut them off?”

Lu Han nodded and Sehun brought out a short knife from his pocket that he’d been buried with. Raising the blade he cut through the thick black string that composed the mouth stitches and pulled it all away, only to find that absolutely nothing had been behind the stitches. Brushing a thumb over where the stitches had been Sehun felt some movement behind the burlap and a slight rise and indentation as well. Now he had an idea of why Lu Han was so reluctant to give a yes or no answer regarding the existence of his mouth.

“Do you have teeth?” Lu Han nodded, “A tongue?” Another nod.

Sehun moved onto the next question, his theory was turning out to be correct so far. “You have a complete and functioning mouth but no one made you lips that can part?”

 _Bingo_ Sehun thought watching as Lu Han nodded emphatically. “I’ll see you at the cafe tomorrow? I think we can start then.”

\---

Planning with Lu Han started after Yifan’s cafe closed the next day, in light of the new information regarding Lu Han’s physiology Sehun had made some minor tweaks to the designs he had.

"What about this one?" Sehun held up a card with a cat mouth. Lu Han responded by picking up Sehun's piping hot cappuccino and preparing to tip it over on Sehun's hand.

"Okay okay!" Sehun acquiesced, laughing and quickly holding up the next card. "What about this?" This card had a line with a slight crinkle in the middle. Lu Han paused, then held his hand out flat, palm down, and teetered it back and forth. His "kinda maybe" motion again. So Sehun put the card in the maybe pile.

At this point Sehun was worried, he didn't have many cards left in the pile and so far there weren't any mouths that Lu Han seemed terribly interested in. That is until he held up the next card.

Lu Han stood up and began frantically pointing at the card the moment Sehun presented it. Floored by the enthusiastic reaction Sehun flipped the card around to take a look at it himself and had to keep himself from raising an eyebrow. This had been one of the cards he put in as a joke. In retrospect the mouth on the paper was indeed very petite and doll like, though the main feature of this mouth was the pair of plush lips tinged red that came with it. They weren't really that cartoony or exaggerated per se... Just... Sehun wasn't expecting this out of Lu Han.

"You want this one?" Sehun asked, tilting his head to the side.

Lu Han nodded.

Sehun pushed Lu Han's pen and notepad closer to him, "Uhh are there any adjustments you want me to make to it?"

Lu Han shook his head.

"It's fine as is?"

For the first time, Sehun saw Lu Han smile. Flustered, he grabbed his cappuccino to take a quick gulp. Too late Sehun realised that he neglected to cover the hole in his face. He shut his eyes and braced himself for a mortifying experience brought on by hot coffee pouring out of his cheek and making a mess. 

Unexpectedly, humiliation came from forgetting to swallow. Sehun opened his eyes to find Lu Han covering the hole with his right hand, the cloth hand, and smiling sweetly at him.

“Won’t it stain?” Sehun asked after he had finished spluttering and making a general fool of himself.

Lu Han just beamed at him. Before Sehun recovered from his daze Lu Han tugged his sleeve then held Sehun’s blade to the area where his mouth parting was supposed to be. That didn’t help Sehun recover. He hadn’t expected that this moment would creep up on him so fast. That it would be after hours in a tiny cafe with the sun setting outside. This was it.

“You’re absolutely certain?” Sehun asked, no take-backs after all. In response Lu Han stuffed the blade handle into Sehun’s hand.

 _Here goes nothing_ Sehun pulled his chair up next to Lu Han’s chair. With the blade in his hand he felt more like a common killer than someone ready to mend but he quickly dispelled the thought. That was not the mindset of a successful healer. Cupping Lu Han’s jaw with his left hand he ran his thumb along Lu Han’s mouth in an attempt to find the seam where his lips should be.

 _You’re sure?_ he wanted to ask, _You’re sure you’re sure? Absolutely certain?_ Sehun had only remembered how to make a stitch days before, who knew how good he had been at sewing while he was alive. He couldn’t be the most qualified person to do this for Lu Han, and yet he was all the town had. 

Maybe it was Sehun projecting his thoughts but the sharp glance that Lu Han was giving him seemed to broadcast, _“Ask me if I’m certain one more time and I’ll cut you.”_ So Sehun swallowed those worries. “Here?” He asked, pushing down on where he assumed the corner of Lu Han’s lip was, “Is this where it starts?”

“Nn.” The sound was so soft Sehun thought it was a figment of his imagination, it hadn’t even occurred to him to ask if Lu Han had a voice box. 

Deep breath in, deep breath out. Hand still, Sehun kept a firm grip on Lu Han’s jaw while he pressed the knife against the burlap. The edge of the blade wasn’t sharp enough for it to sink through the fabric on its own so he began making minute sawing motions, Sehun was sure that he had to be more scared than Lu Han was.

The knife clanked against something, Sehun saw a sliver of white winking back at him through split burlap. Boldened by the progress he went on. Making small slicing motions and watching as more and more of Lu Han’s front teeth were revealed. Another quiet sound came from Lu Han and Sehun took that as his cue to stop.

After confirming with Lu Han that he had indeed stopped where his premade mouth ended Sehun moved back to get an overall glance of the doll’s face. Already this was proving far easier than he had thought it would be. Sewing a new mouth for a doll that had been mute since its birth that is. In the end Sehun’s nerves proved to be his greatest enemy, sewing wasn’t rocket science or brain surgery. Moulds creating the shape of Lu Han’s lips were already in place.

Lu Han squirmed some and Sehun tightened his grip accordingly, “Shh. Nearly done. This is going to be a lot easier than I thought.” He stroked along Lu Han’s jaw with a finger in an attempt to be reassuring, “But in the meantime try to hold still okay? It can become not easy very fast.”

As Lu Han settled down Sehun retrieved his needle and string. Mending Lu Han’s lips would be slightly more difficult, he hadn’t really practised making small neat stitches. This time he prompted Lu Han to keep his mouth open and his head tilted back. In this new position Sehun could see a small pink patch that had been darned onto Lu Han’s red velvet tongue, charming. 

The cloth around Lu Han’s mouth hung in flaps after Sehun made the incision. Starting with the top lip he folded the cloth over the lip mould, chanting prayers in his mind all along as he hemmed the edge of the flap on the inside of Lu Han’s lip.

Right as he finished the top lip the sound of what had to be a bear dying came from behind Sehun. Lu Han grabbed his shoulder before he could turn around. 

“You cut his face!” Yifan accused.

“Fixing,” Sehun mumbled through grit teeth. Determined not to let Yifan distract him, Sehun moved his hand down to the bottom flap and folded it over the mould for the lower lip.

“I know what I’m doing,” Sehun said with a conviction that was slowly establishing itself. Yifan, the “Doll Police” as Sehun thought of him had walked over and like a mother hawk he was watching them too close for Sehun’s comfort. In turn Sehun slowed his movements, it would be a shame if he made a mistake due to being frazzled by some third party. 

Yifan hmphed then walked two steps back, satisfied with the show he made of inspecting Sehun. “Do you want a cappuccino?”

No longer under the magnifying glass, Sehun returned to darning Lu Han’s lip at normal speed, “Nah, why is it always a cappuccino though?” Ever since he had arrived he had been able to try a variety of food at the cafe but the drink that came with it was always a cappuccino. “You know how to brew other blends right?” He added with a hint of smarm, uttering a curse when he accidentally poked himself with the needle. Served him right.

“Of course,” Yifan’s voice came from behind the counter. “You just look like a guy who needs a little something to take the bitter edge off.”

“Tch.” By now Sehun had finished hemming Lu Han’s lips so that there was no loose cloth hanging about. Currently he was sewing over the lip moulds with the thread. Lu Han’s design choice, not his.

“I think Lu Han’s kind of like that,” Yifan chimed with a hint of smarm that Sehun was certain he wasn’t imagining. “I think he takes the edge off of you.”

The only indication that Sehun heard what Yifan said lay in the slight tinge in his cheeks. Now that Sehun had finished with outlining Lu Han’s lips it was time for the final touch. Rummaging in the pocket of his fatigues he pulled out the tube of lipstick from the makeup kit he found in his room. “This is what I used to colour the drawing,” he explained to Lu Han. “Do you want this?”

For all intents and purposes Lu Han’s mouth was completely functional now, however instead of voicing an affirmative he still chose to nod.

“Right then.” Sehun held Lu Han’s chin as he lightly applied the rouge. Just a bit though, he liked it subtle. He stopped when there was just a hint of red. “Can you smack your lips for me? Like this.” He demonstrated the motion, trying to keep from laughing as Lu Han attempted to mimick him.

“And… Done. Yifan do you have a mirror?”

 _Ah. Vampire, right._ Sehun remembered as Yifan shot him a dark look. Sehun pondered their options for a moment, what could be used for a mirror…

Sehun snapped his fingers, “Do you want to go to my cabin?”

\---

All along the silent walk back to Sehun’s cabin he felt his anxiety prickling along the top of his scalp and his fingertips. Lu Han hadn’t made any attempts at conversation and it seemed too pushy to ask him about it. Arriving at the lake they walked up to the dodgy dock made of rotten wood. Sehun strode up to the end and sat down, Lu Han followed his example soon after. 

The lake had a tranquility about it, the sun had shone bright when he first walked into the cafe to meet Lu Han. Now it cast deep red streaks across the sky, the air was still warm. While the silence still hung around them it wasn’t nearly as awkward as during the walk.

Sehun caught Lu Han’s eye and waved his arm toward the water, encouraging him to check his reflection. Lu Han accordingly rolled off his bum and crawled to the edge of the dock.

Leaning back on his elbows, Sehun smiled as he heard a quiet croaky “Ah!” come from Lu Han.

“Won’t you try to talk at least?” Sehun drawled, still leaning back. “I’m dying to hear what you sound like.”

“You are dead.” Lu Han rasped, still bent over the edge of the dock. His voice reminded Sehun of his own from when he first woke up. 

He laughed, “Don’t go too far over the edge okay? Be careful.” Somehow Sehun thought that Lu Han would be babbling like a brook after getting his mouth fixed, though it didn’t surprise him that Lu Han chose to maintain silence.

At Sehun’s heeding, Lu Han crawled back over and plopped down next to Sehun, “Thank you.”

“N-no problem,” Sehun flushed, it felt a bit trite to say. “How is it? Is there anything that need to be adjusted?”

Lu Han shook his head.

Sehun crossed his arms behind his head then lay back completely, meanwhile Lu Han mostly busied himself with opening and closing his mouth, sometimes stuffing his fingers inside. The only sounds were the birds and the occasional jingle of the bell on Lu Han’s neck, reattached earlier that day in the cafe. 

“Hey,” Sehun said, interrupting the quiet stretch. “How come you were wandering around alone in the forest that one time?”

Ever since he had found Lu Han torn apart in the forest the question had been on his mind. According to Yifan, Lu Han wasn’t allowed to wander around unsupervised and then according to the villagers, there was a great fear among the people of wandering too far into the forest. 

Overbearing silence reigned as usual, so long that Sehun didn’t think he was going to get an answer.

“I wanted to go home.”

Sehun raised an eyebrow, he was under the impression that Lu Han lived in the cafe, though that didn’t explain where he came from. “Don’t things kind of get odd in the forest though? Something about a boundary and all of us dying for good if we cross it?”

“No.” Lu Han’s voice slowly became steadier, “I came from here. I was the first. Home is inside the boundary.”

If Lu Han was the first resident of Halloweenland then Sehun trusted his judgement. That gave him another idea.

“Do you want to go there? Right now?”

 _Perhaps that wasn’t the right thing to say_ Sehun thought after seeing how Lu Han tensed. Though after a few moments, his shoulders slackened and the only indicator of his intentions was a certain look to his eyes while they lingered on Sehun. 

Lu Han nodded.

\---

The sun had been a deep red when they entered the woods, when they emerged it had already set. Perception of time always got a bit unreliable and weird in the wilderness.

Thankfully Sehun and Lu Han’s trip went better than Lu Han’s last foray into the woods. After the trees had thinned out Sehun had been astounded to find a large desolate stretch of ground void of… Anything really. It appeared to have been charred in the past, there were a few craters, he came to the conclusion that Halloweenland really was on the edge of civilisation.

“Here.” Lu Han sang. His voice had evened out over the walk. Unlike the walk to the lake, Lu Han had spent the walk through the woods singing along with the birds. There were difficulties at first, his voice had cracked, sometimes there had been hacking fits, but all in all he had probably regained his voice faster than Sehun. 

Sehun followed Lu Han to the one structure still standing, a shoddy old building in the shape of a generic house. It didn’t look nearly as eloquent as the quaint structures in Halloweenland. Lu Han eagerly bounded up the steps into the structure and upon following him, Sehun found the inside to be far less eloquent as well. Even in comparison to his own humble cabin.

Inside was suffocatingly cramped, on the outside it looked like a house for a family of four. Clearly more than four people had lived in the house when it was still in use. The interior was divided into eight sections and a long corridor. Sehun had the impression the house wasn’t used for conventional habitation. Each section had six tiny bunk beds arranged into two columns with only a curtain for privacy, Lu Han dragged him to the one at the end of the corridor to the left.

“Here. This is where I woke up.” Lu Han pointed to the bottom bunk on the right and Sehun moved closer. Each bed still had little personal artefacts from the inhabitants. Sehun saw a stuffed bear on the adjacent bunk on the top and racy magazines on the adjacent bunk on the bottom. For Lu Han’s bunk it was something more familiar, a large sewing kit in a small rectangular case and a journal.

“ _You_ lived here?” Sehun asked, opening the case. Though it was beat up it was very well assembled, spools with thread of every shade, scissors, anything the sewing enthusiast could want.

“No, _He_ lived here. This place isn’t quite _home_ home, but I think it’s the closest I can get.” Lu Han plopped down on the bed and hugged the pillow to his chest, according to everyone around him “home” was a place you belonged. Unfortunately the only place Lu Han felt he belonged was in His hands.

“He?” Sehun inquired.

“The one who made me.” Lu Han then pointed to the leather bound journal, “That’s His book, He drew pictures of me.” Somehow the fondness in Lu Han’s tone annoyed Sehun, he reached for the journal.

“I can’t read it at all though.” Lu Han said with a pout.

Well Sehun thought that was very odd considering he could read it perfectly fine. He flipped through the pages, picking up words as he went through _Lu Han, doll, war_ …

“Oh! It’s dark out!”

Sehun hurriedly closed the journal and stuffed it back to where it was. It seemed Lu Han had not noticed him examining the journal.

“We better go, I think Baekhyun’s going to transform soon.” Lu Han said in a hushed tone, panic evident in the way his voice quivered and how he cupped his face.

Sehun shushed him then took his hand, “We’ll be fine.”

\---

Sehun didn’t really understand Lu Han. From Lu Han’s “home” they walked through the moonlit forest holding hands with their fingers interlaced. Perhaps that was incorrect, it was more like he didn’t understand why _Lu Han_. Why it was him. From the moment he saw Lu Han he couldn’t leave him alone. It wasn’t a phase, it wouldn’t blow over. Lu Han was not a puzzle for him to solve.

So what was the attraction?

They walked all the way back to the cafe and now stood before the door and Sehun couldn’t believe the night would be over just like that. 

“The stars are nice tonight.” Sehun blurted out, he felt stupid immediately afterward but he could have done worse. The stars were really nice in the clear October sky.

Lu Han cast his glassy eyes up, he looked even more like a doll in the dim lighting, his eyes could have been buttons, he could have been entirely made of rags but Sehun wouldn’t mind. 

“Oh.” The doll seemed puzzled, “Oh um… They’re bright.”

Well that topic exhausted itself quick. Sehun held both of Lu Han’s hands in his, one of them he could feel purple cloth scratching against his fingers, the other was smooth, both very chilly. 

“Lu Han.” 

The doll looked up at him, large glassy eyes unblinking.

“Lu Han I like you.”

Nothing, no blinking, not even a breath.

Sehun let out a shaky sigh, “Lu Han.” He gripped the doll’s hands tighter, “I li- _love_ you.” 

Three seconds, a minute. Somehow the time that elapsed seemed too long yet too short.

“No.”

“Pardon?” Sehun raised an eyebrow. His heart tightened up. It wasn’t that he was confident he was going to receive a yes, he just wasn’t expecting only a “no”. No what?

“I… No.” Lu Han’s face was blank. “It’s genuinely nothing against you. You’re nice, but I can’t.”

Now Sehun was more puzzled than anything.

“This,” Lu Han pressed Sehun’s had to his chest. “The thing people love with. I don’t have it. You shouldn’t love me. I can’t love you, _I can’t love._ ”

“I… See.” Sehun responded lamely. An unconventional rejection for sure.

He bid Lu Han farewell, Sehun's body ran on autopilot as he walked back to his cabin alone in the moonlight.

_"No." Lu Han said, eyes glassy and blank._

When Sehun repeated the conversation in his head that "No" sounded like a death knell, welcoming a numbness that took his own heart hostage.

_"I can't love."_

_Why?_ Sehun wanted to ask. Surely having a heart wasn't that big of a deal. Walking into his cabin he flopped over onto the bed. There was no way he would be able to sleep right now, mind rife with thoughts.

Using the word "love" may have been a mistake. Although Sehun didn't know about Lu Han's "condition" beforehand, he would have been happy with Lu Han just liking him back. That was what he told himself at least, you didn't have to have a heart to like someone after all.

Sehun let out a grand sigh. What bothered him the most was that it wasn't a simple clear-cut rejection. "I don't love you back" or something of the like, not "I can't love you."

Burying his face into his pillow Sehun groaned. During the whole conversation with Lu Han he had been too shocked to do anything, the second Lu Han stared at him and said no Sehun's mind went blank. Now it was anything but. _What if you did have a heart? Would you love me if you had a heart?_ Sehun wanted to ask.

Another sigh, he needed to calm down. So what if Lu Han didn't love him as he loved Lu Han? How would things be different? It wasn't like he fixed Lu Han's mouth to win his love, he wouldn't stop visiting him at the cafe or repairing him when he needed it. _That's right_ Sehun thought, closing his eyes. He would visit Lu Han the next day and hopefully things wouldn't be awkward.

\---

Sehun didn't have any memories of being a terribly determined individual when he was alive, the fact that he barely had any memories at all of being alive was beside the point. Somehow he just didn't see himself as someone who was hellbent on making dreams happen, someone who couldn't take no for an answer.

The next day he still beat himself up over the previous evening’s events. He hadn’t even known Lu Han for a month and here he was throwing around the word love. 

However regret wasn’t one of the many feelings in his emotion bank at the moment.

Less than a month had nothing to do with elation that came over his heart and mind when he spent time with Lu Han.

Sehun strode into the cafe and plopped down at the usual table in the back corner with Lu Han, setting down a rucksack on the table.

Back when Lu Han’s clothing had been torn in the altercation with Baekhyun, Sehun had immediately gone to work trying to come up with an appropriate replacement for the torn clothes. The solution had come in a dusty navy blue dress uniform that he had found under his bed, only issue being that it was rather large. So for practice, he hemmed the uniform down to what he hoped was “Lu Han” size. Sure it would have been wise to ask Lu Han if he could measure him, but that took time.

“Hey,” Sehun said with a smile he didn’t completely feel, “What do you think?”

If Lu Han was surprised to see him he didn’t show it, “Hm?”

Sehun gestured to Lu Han’s now tattered outfit, “It’s a bit uncomfortable now isn’t it? I tried making something similar.”

Lu Han’s eyes widened, “What? I…” He hugged the clothes to his chest, “You’re far too nice to me.”

Sehun swiped his thumb across Lu Han’s bottom lip then brushed it over his own cheek, making a red line. 

Lu Han squawked, “Rude!” His hand immediately darted to his pocket to retrieve the lipstick that Sehun had given him. It only took him seconds to touch up his lip. 

Sehun smiled, Lu Han looked very lovely with his new mouth, “Go change, I wanna see if it fits.”

Grabbing the uniform, Lu Han released a little huff as he walked to the back room. As soon as he left, Yifan came by setting a mug down on the table.

“Your caffè mocha.” Yifan announced.

“I thought it was usually a cappuccino.” Sehun looked at the mug, bewildered. Wrong order perhaps?

“Today you look like you need more than “a little” something to take the bitter edge off.” 

With that, Yifan left, just as fast as he had passed by while Sehun continued to stare at the mug. There was no way that he looked glum enough for other people to notice…

“Done!” 

Looking up from his coffee Sehun had to suppress a laugh at the sight of Lu Han. He had done well in tailoring the uniform if he did say so himself. Sehun had hemmed the trousers down to a length similar to the dress shorts Lu Han originally had. The top was slightly more elaborate, a white shirt with a black tie under a large navy blazer with gold epaulettes, though instead of the black tie Lu Han had kept his red bow with the bell.

“It looks so handsome!” Lu Han gushed and hugged Sehun, “I forgive you for messing up my lipstick!”

 _”Handsome”_ Sehun thought with a smirk. 

Nothing had changed really, they still joked around, they still theorised about their lives before Halloweenland.

“Oi! Sehun!” Yifan called out as Sehun was on his way out.

Sehun turned around.

Yifan was now standing next to him, “That new mouth you made for Lu Han, it’s really nice. He seems a lot happier now, won’t stop talking.”

“Oh uh…” Sehun didn’t know where this was headed, “It was my pleasure?”

Yifan waved a hand before he could embarrass himself further, “But I think he wants more you know?”

“Huh?” Anything that Lu Han wanted, Sehun was interested in.

“Lu Han’s the only person in the whole town who’s never been human before and I think it gets to him a lot.”

Now it just seemed like Yifan was talking nonsense.

“It didn’t bother him so much before but then recently his flesh parts have been coming in a lot faster and he’s more sensitive about it. Look at his flesh hand, do you remember where it cuts off at?”

“His wrist right? I’m afraid I don’t follow.” Sehun didn’t know what Yifan was getting at.

“Ah ah, look again.”

Sehun looked over to Lu Han and sure enough the cutoff was now at the middle of Lu Han’s forearm.

“How-”

“Maybe you should make him more parts,” Yifan said with a laugh. “It wasn’t like that before he got his new mouth.”

Sehun’s eyes widened and he felt his heart tighten again, this time in a different way. He opened his mouth to question Yifan but the vampire had already vanished. Strange.

Sehun wasn’t a person hellbent on getting his way, he wasn’t someone who couldn’t take no for an answer.

But that mean he didn’t like to try.

It wasn’t _just_ that Lu Han didn’t love him, he wasn’t able to.

When Lu Han couldn’t speak, Sehun made him a new mouth.

When Lu Han couldn’t love? 

Well…

\---

“I told you that he’s a doll, he’s full of fluff and I don’t have anything for you. An organic heart would just get covered up by fluff and die inside of him.” Kyungsoo said without skipping a beat.

The majority of Kyungsoo’s statements regarding Lu Han could be characterised as him spouting condescending drivel about how Lu Han’s inner workings were far less fascinating than those of humans. In reality Sehun figured he was probably just bitter over the fact that Lu Han wouldn’t let him check out his flesh parts.

Even while most of what Kyungsoo said was condescending drivel, Sehun occasionally found that he did indeed have gems of wisdom to offer. “An organic heart you say, what about a non-organic one then?”

“Then what’s the point?” Kyungsoo snapped, “Is this something he put you up to? Why don’t you just cobble together something for him? He’d probably be just as happy with it.”

The next avenue of investigation was where Sehun hit paydirt.

Admittedly it was a bit dodgy, going to the odd structure that Lu Han called home without Lu Han. Since visiting the place there was one thing that bugged Sehun, the journal. 

_”I brought the journal back to town once,” Lu Han huffed while Sehun went through His sewing kit. “I wrote a whole long explanation about how important it was and asked everyone around town if they could read it for me and wouldn’t you believe it they all said they couldn’t!”_

The guilt ate at Sehun’s gut, each time they visited the place Lu Han would talk about the journal and Sehun would politely nod while trying to curb the urge to read through the journal. He had played with the idea of translating the journal’s contents to Lu Han, but after some consideration of the author’s privacy he decided against it. Only one man out of a population of fortysome people could decipher the contents, that was a pretty clear sign the author didn’t want everyone to know the contents.

Over the hill and through the woods to the abandoned structure he went, quickly walking up the steps and down the end of the corridor inside. The route was like second nature to him now, when he would come here with Lu Han he would take his place at the foot of the bed while Lu Han stayed near the head to hug the pillow. 

So Sehun plopped down at the foot and grabbed the journal that turned out to be a fascinating read. 

_June 1942: Could there not be some aptitude or personality test for optimal military placement? My sexuality has already been questioned four times and counting since I arrived, namely due to the perceived effeminacy of my sewing a doll for my younger sister. Surely it would be more cost effective for me to remain with my family at the shop, heroically tailoring clothes to assist the battle on the home front!_

The narrative painted the picture of a quiet (and apparently nameless given the lack of any names) young man born to a family of tailors recently sent off to war. In the beginning the journal didn’t have much regarding Lu Han, whom Sehun learned was born of the little sister’s desire for a “pretty” doll.

_August 1942: Small One always wanted to see the progress I made on Lu Han. Perhaps it defeated the point of a surprise but I let her. Refusing her wishes never has and never will be an option for me. Barring that, having her witness Lu Han’s creation allows her to give me input of what she wants him to look like in the end. Unfortunately due to the shortage of material on the front I had to give him pink hair, however Small One seemed undeterred, even suggesting that I sew a bell in the centre of the red bow around Lu Han’s neck._

It wasn’t just personal anecdotes in the little journal, most interesting to Sehun were the increasingly frequent diagrams in the volume detailing how Lu Han was to be constructed. The diagrams were incredibly specific, nary a blank spot was left on each page as arrows and instructions were inscribed all over, what stitches were to be used where, potential materials for certain parts. He was astounded at the sheer volume of love that went into creating Lu Han. There was a firmness that he noted in Lu Han’s limbs, but never in his wildest dreams would he have guessed that “He” (as Lu Han so fondly dubbed him) had created a meticulous skeletal system entirely of polished wood for Lu Han. The wonders didn’t end there as Sehun even came across an entry that detailed how the author acquired ivory for the casting of Lu Han’s teeth.

As the entries went on the diagrams became more frequent, the author spoke less of the war, of his fellow soldiers, and more of Lu Han. Even going so far as to talk about conversations that he had with the doll.

_November 1942: I hope Small One will still find Lu Han pretty. Material is scarce, thus his asymmetric appearance. I told him not to worry though, if she doesn’t take him, I will._

The diagrams late into the journal had a fervour to how they were drawn. The lines wavered, as if the artist’s hand had been shaking when writing. The once meticulous labelling had degenerated into nonsense, with some diagrams lacking a label at all.

_1942: I had almost forgotten about this journal. The other day I happened upon the one of my fellow recruits and the brigadier general conversing in hushed tones. They want to take Lu Han away, something about the bell around his neck compromising me on the battlefield. What horseshit. I completed the ritual several nights ago, any day now Lu Han will wake up and we can run away together._

And… There was the last entry in the journal. Sehun couldn’t explain not the morosity he felt, knowing that “He” didn’t make it long enough to elope with Lu Han. However the gloom was short-lived, Sehun needed to find clues. At this rate Sehun wouldn’t have been surprised if one of the many untitled diagrams was a plan for a heart, it certainly seemed that the Creator was detail oriented enough to attempt making a heart. Part of him was surprised that Lu Han didn’t already have one given how smitten the Creator was.

Leafing through the journal proved tedious, many of the diagrams depicted objects that looked alien to Sehun. The sun waned, robbing him of his reading light as he remained in the cramped cell straining his mind to understand the unlabelled diagrams. Luckily between the bunk bed columns there was a small bureau with an oil lamp perched on top with a scratched up lighter helpfully beside it. 

Sehun found that many of the later diagrams in the journal called for the use of clockwork, currently the highlight of his evening as he worked out that the blueprint he had been staring at for an eternity was for Lu Han’s voice box. 

Much much later, when the lamp had almost exhausted its supply of oil and Sehun’s eyes felt dry and raw from hours of reading and thinking, he found his solution.

There was a blueprint right before the last personal entry in the journal that Sehun had kept flipping past. For the most part the blueprint had been smudged and what little labelling it had next to it was tiny. The blueprint itself had a misleading appearance like all of the other drawings, Sehun had assumed it was just an artillery shell or an acorn. However upon further examination Sehun found a few scribbles detailing a complex clockwork mass that was to go inside of the shell, and brief line instructing that the completed ensemble was to be placed in Lu Han’s chest.

According to the blueprint, the author had already procured the most important piece, and sewed it into Lu Han’s navel for safekeeping.

It wasn’t good to make assumptions, but this was most likely the best lead Sehun was going to get. He passed out on the bunk.

\---

A long week passed before Sehun came back to town. A long week that had been spent readying Lu Han’s heart, after being cooped up for so long Sehun almost felt like a mad man himself, much like the journal’s author. 

With a heavily bandaged hand Sehun knocked on the door to the cafe. Constructing the heart had been… Tedious to say the least. Many of the creations in the journal required a tweaked clockwork assembly to work. Clocks and watches were handily available in the shelter, however the tools required to disassemble them were not. All he had to work with was an array of knives with blades of various shapes and sizes.

Yifan opened the door to the cafe, porting his usual genial smile however Sehun did pick up a trace of unease on the vampire’s face, something about how tight the smile seemed at the corners. None the less Sehun walked in, his visiting Lu Han fresh after the cafe closed wasn’t an unusual event, however not seeing Lu Han for a week was an unusual event.

The table in the back corner where Lu Han stared out the window. Sehun set the bag down on the table, feeling the heart brush softly against the walls of the cloth bag. It wasn’t only prying the cogs, sprockets, and gears out of the clocks and watches that did a number on Sehun’s hands. There was the issue of what to house the clockwork mass in. Unlike the Creator, Sehun didn’t have an artillery shell conveniently laying about. Though Sehun felt his solution was far more elegant, more suiting of Lu Han.

“You!” Lu Han nearly screeched, “Where have you been!?”

Lu Han chewed him out while Sehun took it all with a smile, playing with his hand bandages under the table. Instead of an artillery shell he opted for something more soft, something that would hopefully be more comfortable in Lu Han’s chest. There was a fair amount of cloth laying around the shelter, so Sehun did what he did best. As a base covering he sewed the cloth over the clockwork mass, making sure that the important parts that required connection, vessels and such, poked out of the cloth. After that he had gone out into the woods to collect the primary material he used for cushioning, roses. 

“So really,” Lu Han sighed. “Where have you been?”

“Oh just working and wandering. I haven’t done much of that since coming here, it was fun.”

It was pretty much true. Sehun had spent a _lot_ of time in the woods. Roses were fairly dense, but to create a proper cushion Sehun had to harvest a lot of them. This had been another source of grief for his hands, de-thorning the roses. Sehun didn’t regret a bit of it. One by one he had sewn them to the cloth body of the heart until he had a grapefruit-sized multi-coloured mass in his hands.

“Do you want to go for a walk?” If Sehun learned anything from the confession it was that he should lull Lu Han into a state of ease before announcing important information. He was determined to go about things correctly this time.

“Sure!” Lu Han chirped happily.

\---

“No.”

 _Uh oh_ Sehun didn’t have happy memories associated with that word. This time they stood on the lakeshore by Sehun’s cabin though the word immediately thrust him back to the memory of standing by the cafe on that moonlit night. He waited for Lu Han to explain himself.

“I apologise. I respectfully decline.” 

Sehun thought he had prepared himself for this. He was ready for the possibility that Lu Han wouldn’t love him even if he got the heart, however he wasn’t expecting Lu Han to flat out reject the transplant proposal.

Sehun saw a subtle quaking to Lu Han’s form, maybe there was more to this. He had never seen Lu Han this out of sorts.

“No no… I’m sorry.” Lu Han whimpered, “Y-you’ll have to cut me open to put the heart in and I really don’t want to be cut open.” He clapped his hands to his head and Sehun felt sorry looking at the shaking boy. He embraced Lu Han but the other didn’t relax at all to his dismay.

“I don’t want to be cut open… No… I don’t want a heart…” Lu Han continued to shake and make pitiful sobbing noises. 

It seemed like forever when Sehun stood there holding a shaking Lu Han, eventually the doll pried himself away.

“I’m sorry,” Lu Han sounded drained. “Please take me home.”

\---

A few more days passed, Sehun didn’t leave the lakeside at all during that time.

“Yo.”

Sehun had been sitting at the edge of the dock with his legs dangling over the side when Chanyeol came to him with a mocha and panini. “Presents,” he added, porting his usual radiant grin.

Sehun gave a wry smile of his own in return, “Does Yifan just assume that I don’t feed myself if I don’t go into the cafe?”

“Pretty much.” Chanyeol set the deliveries by Sehun then joined him in sitting on the edge of the dock. “Lu Han hasn’t been working in the cafe for a few days now.”

 _Lu Han…_ Sehun recapped the events of a few days earlier in his head. They had gone for a lovely walk and discussed the Halloween celebration coming at the end of the month. Sehun had remained mostly quiet while Lu Han babbled about how he wanted to sing for the celebration. When they had made it to the lake shore, Sehun had tried to be as genial as possible. Though in retrospect, announcing _”I made you a heart”_ during a lull in conversation was still fairly alarming. 

“How is he? Do you know?”

Chanyeol shook his head, “Yifan’s the only person who’s seen him for days. Say, did Lu Han seem off at all when you both went out the other day?”

Sehun tilted his head, “No. Why?”

This time Chanyeol looked confused, “Huh. I thought he was upset about Kyungsoo but if he was normal with you then I suppose not.”

“What happened with Kyungsoo?”

Chanyeol scratched his head and sighed. “Kyungsoo asked him over for testing that day and Lu Han was pretty upset about it.”

“Wait a minute since when does Kyungsoo want to test on Lu Han?”

“Since forever,” Chanyeol laughed. “He just gets all pissy whenever you come over because he thinks you’re screwing with results.”

 _What?_ This was the first Sehun heard of this. That may have explained Lu Han’s rather… Extreme reaction. 

Whatever the case Sehun planned on waiting a few days, he wasn’t sure if he could handle seeing Lu Han at the moment.

\---

Two days of solitude later Sehun witnessed the unexpected, Lu Han sitting alone on the sandy bank near Sehun’s cabin. 

 

He stayed at his desk, watching Lu Han through his window. Sehun’s heart was still smarting over the events of several days before. 

Taking deep breath and holding it for several seconds, Sehun mentally steeled himself. Lu Han didn’t want his love or his heart, no big deal. He still wanted Lu Han’s company, he just needed a moment to compose himself.

Counting to three he stepped out the cabin door. Sky gloomy and air tense, he padded down to the shore and sat down next to Lu Han. 

The tension thickened as they sat next to each other on the sandy bank. Sehun felt as though he was suffocating in his loose t-shirt, like the air was too thick to breathe. If Lu Han noticed his presence he was doing a fine job of not showing it.

“Sehun.”

Lu Han’s tone was sombre, Sehun didn’t move but he was all ears.

Lu Han swallowed thickly, “Please forget about me.” His voice remained even.

Sehun inhaled sharp enough to feel it pierce his chest. He kept bracing himself for surprises, he kept being surprised. Honestly… Why did he still bother? Sehun licked his dry lips with his parched tongue. “Why?” He croaked.

Lu Han took Sehun’s hand and began playing with the fingers. “You’ve noticed how I’m becoming more and more real right?”

Sehun nodded.

“So far I’ve been transitioning wonderfully. As it turns out, He made many things for me and all of them still work.” Lu Han sighed, “Except for a heart.”

He squeezed Sehun’s hand. “A while ago my chest became real too, and that’s when the nightmare started.” 

Sehun had a feeling the story was going to get worse.

“Kyungsoo noticed, he was always interested in how my body differed from a natural human’s. So he attempted a transplant.”

Lu Han let go of Sehun’s hand.

“It was unsuccessful.”

Lu Han lay flat on the sand with his arms crossed behind his head, “I’m telling you to forget me because I’m going to die soon. I can’t live without a heart but a replacement heart won’t take.”

Minutes. Hours. Time passed, the world turned, they both remained quiet.

Sehun stood up, his face and mind were oddly blank. “Come to the cabin.”

There was an uncharacteristic confidence about his movements. Sehun briefly glanced back to make sure Lu Han was following him before brusquely walking back to the cabin.

“Sit on the bed,” he ordered, monotone as he gestured for Lu Han to walk into the cabin first before doing so himself then closing the door. He quickly fished out a bag from under the bed and dropped it onto Lu Han’s lap before scooting up so his back was against the wall. Holding his knees to his chest, Sehun looked toward the ceiling, anywhere but Lu Han.

“If you don’t want to see me, fine.” It came out more gruff than he would have liked. Sehun swore he wasn’t angry. “But take that at least. I don’t have a use for it.”

Perplexed with Sehun’s abrupt coldness Lu Han opened the bag and gasped.

“Sehun. Sehun look at me.”

Sehun didn’t move.

“Sehun!” Lu Han pushed Sehun’s knees down flat on the bed then sat on them. Sehun still kept his gaze adamantly on the ceiling

Lu Han sighed. “I care about you Sehun, very very much. I don’t want my passing to come as a surprise to you.”

Sehun continued to ignore him so Lu Han continued, voice almost a whisper. “I didn’t give you the full story earlier.” 

He took a breath, “A few days before you woke up, Kyungsoo killed his first creation, the jiangshi, so he could put its heart in me.”

Sehun tensed, he remembered the welcome party talking about how the jiangshi was missing. He heard the ruffling of clothes, jingling, and cloth ripping.

“Sehun _look at me._ ” 

Lu Han’s voice now had a steely venomous edge to it that Sehun couldn’t ignore. He turned to look at Lu Han and found himself once again, unprepared. 

Lu Han had ripped the top half of his shirt open, exposing a vast expanse of smooth, near translucent flesh. A vast expanse marred by a zipper that extended from the middle of his collarbones to the middle of his navel where the flesh blended back into cloth. The zipper had been crudely stapled into the flesh.

“Lu Han-”

“This,” Lu Han pointed to the zipper, “Is Kyungsoo’s work. If the first heart didn’t work he intended to kill Chanyeol for a second try, the zipper was for easy access.” 

Sehun placed his hands on Lu Han’s shoulders. Lu Han let them stay. “He had to break my sternum apart before he could get to where my heart was supposed to be. When he put in Zitao’s heart my body rejected it instantly.”

Sehun was shaking now.

“No anaesthetic works on my body,” Lu Han grinned crookedly. “I would have rather died heartless than go through that again.”

Sehun looked down, as a doll Lu Han didn’t weigh much however currently Sehun felt the pressure of Lu Han sitting on his legs was crushing him.

“But,” Lu Han whispered in a far softer tone. “There’s something about being in your hands I can’t describe.” He picked up the heart Sehun made, admiring the floral exterior, “And if I had it my way I would accept your beautiful heart and love you back.” He lifted up one of Sehun’s hands and placed the heart into his palm. 

“So, I want you to put it in.”

Sehun’s reaction was immediate, “Absolutely not!” He nearly dropped the heart in shock, “I’m not- I’m nowhere near qualified. I can sew but that’s-”

Lu Han titled his head and beamed, “Either you put it in or no one puts it in.”

Sehun shut up. Neither prospect was appealing, if nothing happened Lu Han was apparently going to die but the other option was… 

“You only have to know how to sew.” Lu Han supplied nonchalantly. “You see these bits sticking out?” He pointed toward the veins protruding through the flower covering, “All you have to do is suture those to the corresponding parts inside me.”

Sehun wanted to scream at how calmly Lu Han explained the procedure, “Lu… Lu Han it’s going to hurt.” He said weakly.

“You or nothing.” Lu Han said with a smile.

There were many reasons that Sehun could think of why he shouldn’t be the one to do this, it might not work, he might make Lu Han hurt worse. “Lu Han,” he rasped, voice thick with too many emotions to name. “What do you want?”

“I want to be real, Sehun.” Lu han said with a hint of pleading, a hint of exasperation. “But only if you’re the one who makes me real.”

“There’s one thing I want first,” Sehun squeezed Lu Han’s shoulders tighter. His hands were now cold and clammy after hearing Lu Han’s story, he hoped it didn’t feel unpleasant on Lu Han’s left shoulder. 

“Yes?”

Slowly, Sehun moved his hands along Lu Han’s skin. Feeling the contrast between Lu Han’s smooth left shoulder and the slight scratchiness of his right shoulder. Sehun moved his hands closer and closer to the centre, tracing his thumbs along Lu Han’s collarbones. Lu Han’s neck was composed of purple and white argyle patterned fabric. Sehun’s mind was on autopilot as he slid his palms up Lu Han’s neck just to feel.

Lu Han’s eyes were closed and his head was tilted back. Sehun hoped that was a safe indicator that the doll wasn’t weirded out by his odd stroking ritual. He then cupped Lu Han’s face, using his thumbs to stroke along the horizontal seam on Lu Han’s face that divided flesh from fabric, then trailing one over Lu Han’s bottom lip. There he lingered, pushing slightly and finding that he could barely feel the thread he used to emphasise Lu Han’s lips in the first place.

According to the journal the Creator had used pink yarn for Lu Han’s hair. Sehun slid his fingers up to tangle in Lu Han’s hair and lightly scratched along the scalp. He couldn’t imagine that it was ever pink yarn, all he found were delightfully soft curls that shined a deep pink. Lu Han purred at the treatment and Sehun allowed himself a small smile.

“This is the most I can offer for a painkiller I’m afraid.” He said quietly, more to himself than to Lu Han though he caught Lu Han’s shoulders quaking in laughter. 

Without further ado he pulled Lu Han flush against his body and kissed him. There was no reciprocation, however Lu Han wasn’t tense like the other times he held him so overall Sehun took it as an improvement. Just a press of the lips while Sehun tried to memorise everything important such as the heat of Lu Han’s chest against his body that wasn’t present anywhere else, what limbs were what colour… Sehun had to memorise it all, lest he couldn’t later.

\---

_“Now? You really want me to do it now?”_

_“Why not? Do you have other engagements?”_

In the fairy tales Sehun recalled reading when he was alive the usual agents of healing were true love, a kiss, magic, and other such things.

When he had woken up in Halloweenland he felt like he was in a fairy tale, everyone he had met was certainly enough of a character to be in a fairy tale.

If that was the case, Sehun was sure this had to be the most hardcore fairy tale ever.

With his hands wrist-deep in Lu Han’s chest cavity while Lu Han shrieked bloody murder under him, Sehun found it difficult to believe what he was doing was for Lu Han’s good. 

Preparation had gone by with Sehun holding his silence while Lu Han gave him commands, take his shirt off, tie him to the bed, and so on. When all was said and done, Sehun stood by the bed, staring at the long zipper on Lu Han’s chest.

_“Do it.”_

Hours passed of Lu Han thrashing and screaming as Sehun grit his jaw while he sutured the vessels on the heart in the appropriate places. 

_“I’m sorry.” Sehun mumbled. “I’m so sorry.”_

He wasn’t sure if Lu Han was even coherent. All he did was wail and convulse, Sehun swallowed his apologies and braved on.

Then, at long last, at long long last, it was over. The relevant vessels on the heart had been attached properly while Sehun stood there, hands red and slippery. All that was left was to zip Lu Han’s chest back up and turn the winder in the heart three times.

“Lu Han.” Sehun wiped one of his hands on his trousers then wiped some sweat from his forehead, “It’s over.”

Lu Han’s fringe was plastered to his forehead from sweat. With the same hand that Sehun had wiped on his trousers he brushed the hair out of Lu Han’s flushed face. He wondered if Lu Han was okay, the doll’s eyes were shining and his pupils large. It seemed like he was fighting just to breath with how his body shook as he gasped for breath.

Sehun bent down next to Lu Han’s ear, “Shhhhh.”

Akin to candle being extinguished in slow motion, Lu Han’s chest evened out into a pattern of slowly rising and falling and his eyelids drew shut.

And finally, the most important part. When he was sure that Lu Han was fully passed out, Sehun made an incision in the plush part of Lu Han’s navel, right under the belly button. Within moments he found what the creator had already accounted for, the winder, and a little something extra. Sehun placed the mystery object to the side then quickly plucked out the winder and sewed the incision back up.

His hands were trembling now and Sehun quietly reprimanded himself, he made it through several hours worth of sewing Lu Han’s heart in, winding up the heart should be nothing. Although something about the thought of sticking something directly into Lu Han’s heart spread a fear deep in his being. He shouldn’t have been the one doing this, it should have been the creator.

Sehun inhaled deep, then slowly let the air out.

A small clinking sound as he inserted the winder.

Clicking as he turned it three times.

A quick _zip!_ as he closed Lu Han up.

 _tick tick tick…_

\---

Pitch dark, much to the dismay of the people of the town. Usually on Halloween there was a large round moon that was great at setting the tone for the festivities.

That was according to the townsfolk anyway. Sehun sat on the lakeshore bitter and alone organising his fishing spoils. Everyone had insisted that since he was new in the town he was only to sit back and enjoy the festivities, leaving him with nothing to do for the day. He didn't remember a time before Lu Han, Sehun told himself that it made sense that he felt a little lost without him.

"Sehun! Sehun!"

Putting down his rod, Sehun looked up to find the two witch girls staring at him.

"We can't find Lulu." The one on the left spoke first. Sehun tried to remember whether this one was Soojung or Jinri. Even with how often they bothered him Sehun had yet to remember which was which.

The right one piped up, "We need him for our puppet show tonight!"

"He's been missing for quite some time now." Dropping her voice even lower she went on, "It's just like when Zitao went missing and Zitao still hasn't come back! What if they were taken by the same person?"

Sehun felt a headache coming on. There were the creepy girls that came in pairs, and then there was Soojung and Jinri. Fomenting unrest seemed to be a casual hobby for them.

"You have to help us Sehun! Uncle Yifan won't tell us anything."

_What makes you think I'll tell you anything?_

Sehun sighed, "Uh... Sure. Let's go." Realistically, the girls probably wielded more power than Joonmyeon and Sehun didn't want to be on their bad side.

It turned out that he didn’t even need to say anything. The two witch girls did all the talking as they dragged Sehun to Town Centre. The experience was oddly reminiscent of when Sehun had first come to town, quietly listening to the babbling of others while he got a feel for the place. That time the town was also preparing for a celebration.

Conversation consisted of increasingly grim theories as to what happened to Lu Han while Sehun listened on amused, but he held his silence. It was fun hearing what they thought when he know the truth.

They arrived at the cafe, somewhere Sehun had not visited for a while, though he couldn’t stay away for long he supposed. The second they stepped in Yifan was upon him.

“Go upstairs. I’ll deal with them.” Yifan said quickly. 

Dimly Sehun heard the girls screeching “No fair!” from below. Grateful, he gave Yifan a quick nod before going behind the counter and walking up the stairs. Yifan lived downstairs in a crypt below the cafe, the single cell upstairs was for tenants. Well… Tenant.

Before he even had the door at the top of the stairs properly open there was a loud squeal of “Sehunnie!” and he abruptly had his arms full of happy doll.

“I missed you so much!” Lu Han chirped while nuzzling his chest and it took Sehun a second to recover from the shock. He wasn’t used to Lu Han being so affectionate. A far cry from how he was before the procedure. Not that Sehun minded of course.

“Oh! There’s something new on your necklace!” Lu Han chirped when his head nudged against something small and hard under Sehun’s shirt, “Lemme see!” He made grabby hands toward Sehun.

“Hello to you too darling,” Sehun whispered, tactfully dodging Lu Han’s hands while craning his head down to press his ear against Lu Han’s chest.

Lu Han giggled, forgetting all about Sehun’s necklace, “Is Sehunnie looking for a baby? What are you doing?”

“Shhh not yet.” Sehun pulled away when he was satisfied that Lu Han’s heart was still ticking properly. “Is everything okay?” He asked quietly, taking Lu Han’s hands in his own, “Does it hurt?” He absently rubbed circles on the backs of Lu Han’s hands.

“I already told you my body accepted the heart!” Lu Han said with a laugh, pressing himself closer to Sehun, “With the last heart it hurt so bad when Kyungsoo finished attaching everything. It was really obvious that my body didn’t accept it, you don’t have to worry.”

Sehun moved them until they were sitting on the bed, though even then somehow Lu Han found a way to wiggle himself onto Sehun’s lap.

“Do you need to be wound up again?” He asked while stroking Lu Han’s sides. In Sehun’s opinion, Lu Han should have been the one to keep his winder, it just made sense that way. However Lu Han had insisted that Sehun keep it, so the winder stayed on a chain around his neck.

“I’m fine.” Lu Han trilled.

The conversation died out until a few minutes later when Sehun heard Yifan downstairs trying to talk the girls out of doing a puppet show. At the sound of the girls’ voices Lu Han huddled closer to his side.

“How come you’re hiding up here anyway?”

Sehun couldn’t quite catch what Lu Han mumbled, “You don’t want to be in their performance?” 

“It’s not quite that…”

Lu Han stood up and gripped the hem of the jumper Sehun had knitted. While Lu Han was still recuperating Sehun had found a relevant book in the shelter at the edge of the woods. Knitting was a far cry from sewing but seeing how happy Lu Han had been in the jumper made it worth the effort.

Pulling off the jumper, Lu Han stretched his arms out and Sehun ran his hands along them in awe. Both were flesh, nearly Lu Han’s whole torso was human now save for his navel where Sehun extracted the winder from.

“I can’t be their puppet anymore,” Lu Han murmured with an air of solemnity. “There’ll be damage if they string me up like they did before.”

“Did you tell them this?” Sehun asked as he helped Lu Han put the jumper back on.

“I told Joonmyeon so I don’t have to do the festival this year.” Lu Han popped his head through the neck hole of the jumper, “I’m still transitioning so I don’t want to tell everyone.” Leaning back on Sehun, he remembered the necklace, “Your necklace! Gimme!” 

Sehun tensed. Without a word he lifted the chain off his neck and passed it to Lu Han.

Lu Han examined the winder first, a small flat metal piece that made his heart beat. It was immensely special when Sehun used it to start his heart, but otherwise unremarkable. The next item on the necklace was more interesting however…

“A lighter? Oh it says something on it!” 

There had been another item along with the winder sewn into Lu Han’s navel. A beat up silver zippo.

“Where did you get it from Sehunnie?”

Sehun bit the side of his cheek. “Just found it while I was wandering around the lake,” he lied. Hopefully Lu Han would bore of the lighter in the next few seconds. He couldn’t explain why he didn’t want Lu Han messing with it.

“The writing on the back looks like His! Can you read it?”

Sehun bit down harder, “No.”

“Oh that’s too bad,” Lu Han pouted. He turned the lighter around several times in his hands, “Would… Would it be okay if I had this?” 

Sehun shut his eyes and thought about it. Technically it belonged to Lu Han he supposed. He had found it in Lu Han’s navel. 

“Please?”

And the likelihood of him deciphering the inscription was low. 

“Sure,” Sehun relented. Unclasping the chain he removed the lighter and gave it to Lu Han who squealed in glee. He watched as Lu Han ran his thumb over the lighter’s inscription over and over.

_To the best little sister in the world. I hope your pretty doll finds you well. I’m sorry I couldn’t. -- O.S._

Sehun would never forget the image of the words winking at him from between Lu Han’s fingers.


End file.
